WASHINGTON, D.C. – This year, we celebrate the 57th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Sept. 3, 1964. The act immediately created 54 wilderness areas, which totaled 9.1 million acres, and would be managed by the Forest Service. Since 1964, more than 100 separate bills designating new wildernesses have passed Congress.  

The Forest Service has always been a leader in wilderness protection, dating back to 1924 with the initial regional administrative designation of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. Today, the Forest Service manages 448 of the 803 Congressionally designated areas within the National Wilderness Preservation System. Nearly 19% of all National Forest System lands (36.7 million acres) are being actively managed to preserve their wilderness character.

The Wilderness Act states that wilderness areas “shall be administered... so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character.” This affirmative legal mandate to preserve wilderness character applies to all Forest Service wilderness areas. Wilderness character is a holistic concept based on the interaction of biophysical environments, personal experiences and symbolic meanings.

The idea of wilderness character is unique to federal wilderness areas. In turn, preserving wilderness character requires a distinct and sometimes unique approach to land management. The Forest Service manages wilderness with a sense of restraint and attentiveness to the relationship between different qualities of wilderness character.

The smallest wilderness the Forest Service manages is the 372 acre Allegheny Islands Wilderness in Pennsylvania. This wilderness was established in 1984 and is located on seven islands scattered along a 56-mile stretch of the Allegheny Wild and Scenic River.

Conversely, the largest wilderness the Forest Service manages is the 2,359,894 acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho. While not the largest wilderness in the National Wilderness Preservation System, nowhere outside of Alaska can a wilderness experience be found to match the sheer magnitude of the Frank Church-River of No Return, the largest contiguous unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the lower 48.

To learn more about wilderness and wilderness character, please visit Wilderness Connect.